Non-uniform angular spectrum method in a complex medium based on iteration

The traditional angular spectrum method has an inherent problem that the region of diffraction propagation should be homogeneous. However, in some cases, the medium of the diffraction propagation region is inhomogeneous. In this Letter, based on iteration we proposed the non-uniform angular spectrum method for diffraction propagation calculation in a complex medium. By phase pre-processing in the spatial domain and diffraction calculation in the spatial frequency domain, the diffraction propagation problem of the light field in a complex medium is solved. Theoretical formulation and numerical examples as well as experimental investigation are presented to confirm the validity of the proposed method. The advantages of this method include faster computation, smaller memory requirement, and the ability to compute a larger area compared with the finite element method as well as the ability to compute the non-paraxial case compared with the standard fast Fourier transform beam propagation method.